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Saturday, July 13, 2013

The market price of Wolf Pelts on Eldar Craftworlds

"We have you now Fire Prism!!! Hey, what th...?" -Last com of Long Fang Sgt. Leif Steelbrow

Greetings! During my awesome 4-day Independence Day break (the 1st day was spent mostly painting rhino tanks) I managed to get in a game with the devious Warfrog who has been too busy polishing the skulls of his defeated rivals since the new Eldar codex was released upon the unsuspecting world to update his own blog. He has been fielding a list, that in all honesty, changes the way the game is played. Not only in it's execution, but in the manner it which it must be engaged. I shouldn't say it "changes the game", it's still 40K, however it exploits some of the newer aspects of the rules that those of us with fairly static lists are having a difficult time adapting too. His first outing with this list was chronicled by Da Masta Cheef here. It was a crushing defeat against Chaos. His 2nd game was against the Wild Bink's Orks. It was a complete slaughter with easily 80% of the Ork line destroyed in the first turn. Alpha strike was shown to be a reality in ways I have not seen yet in this edition.

Ok so this will be a bit different. The Wild Bink was trying out a snazzy new digital camera that a director friend of ours let him borrow. We both took a lot of pics, but in the end, I decided that the rest of this report will all be exclusively pics taken by The Bink. They have an almost 'real world' vibe about them and reminded me of WWII battle photographs. That and the unpainted models and scenery look better in black and white as well. So enjoy the images and the highlights that follow:

1500 pts of Space Wolves

The air force side of the 1500pts of Eldar

...and the warpspider side. Note the exarchs are just normal guys.

I won the roll off and the Wolves set up first.

﻿﻿

Grey Hunters roar across the bridge while the Long Fangs take high ground in the ruins.

The Lone Wolf (and Cub) deploy with the Whirlwind.

Vindicator deploys hugging some cover. The other Grey Hunter rhino deploys from the POV of this shot.

All of the Eldar Deploy in a fierce battle-line.

Close up from the otherside of the Eldar battle-line.

We both had Master of Princeps as our Warlord Traits, however we were both pleased with our positions and we opted out of moving any units. Then the pointy eared bastards stole the initiative! Bastards!
And thus the foiling of my plans began...

1st blood! The elder wreck the whirlwind!

Somehow I survived the Eldar 1st turn Alpha Strike. But they took First Blood with the destruction of the whirlwind and the subsequent wrecking of the Rhino on the bridge.

The Runepriest arrives with his wolfguard buddies on the Eldar back line.

The Lonewolf (and cub) make a dash between ruins

Space Wolves Turn 1 was largely ineffective. I killed a few warp spiders and a Jet bike, but nothing significant occurred.

﻿﻿﻿﻿Eldar Turn 2

The stage is set after the Eldar's 2nd round moves, and just after the GH rhino on the board edge was blown away.

On this turn the 3 Fireprisms all rolled 1's to hit, however despite this unusual bad luck the warpspiders and jetbikes easily compensated with sheer numbers. They blew up the rhino carrying the other Grey Hunter pack.

Proving the threat to Eldar psychics, the Runepriest and Wolf guard are Doomed and quickly liquidated.

Space Wolves Turn 2

Sven joins the Grey Hunter pack, and they charge the closest Fire Prism and destroy it with Krak Grenades!

The Grey Hunters charge the Fire Prism and destroy it.

Leaving the cover of the bridge, the 1st Grey Hunter Pack seeks cover, but instead spots an opportunity...

...they charge and destroy the 2nd Fire Prism!

Eldar Turn 3

The Grey Hunters are soon taught the error of their insolence!

In fact, the whole Space Wolf army is taught a harsh lesson here!

As you can see the this last pic, the Eldar hunted down the exposed packs that had ventured forth to kill the two Fire Prisms. Sven's pack was cut apart. The other pack was reduced to just 2 models, the Lone Wolf (and cub) were shot down, and the Vindicator was eliminated. The board was filling up with spooling heaps of mono-filament wire.,.

Space Wolf turn 3.

Quickly I found myself with very little army left to run! Seeing no point in trying to secure these objectives, I sent my two surviving Grey Hunters in to the ruins to charge the jet bikes, which they did.

Charge!

A fierce fight, but combat remains locked!

Eldar turn 4

The two squad of Warp Spiders move in and surround the Long Fangs, while the Fire Prism moves in...

The Long Fangs die a quick death...

The other Warp Spiders assist the Jet Bikes who are locked in melee with the two Grey Hunters, but that combat is a tie with no casualties.

Space Wolves Turn 4.

The Grey Hunters continue to fight for their lives, but the jet bikes hold on tight!

Eldar Turn 5.

The Fire Prism and the remaining unengaged Eldar, finish off the annoying Drop Pod, while securing the un contested objectives...

Seriously, how many Space Elves does it take to kill two Space Wolves in Melee?

Eventually their luck would expire and the two remaining Grey Hunters were laid low! See the color pic at the end as well to see just how outnumbered they were!

Yeah, we got some glory, what of it?

These two chaps definitely earned a fast track to getting their paintjobs finished!

So, I was tabled! Hasn't happened in about 3 years, and that was at Warfrog's hands as well. However, this is a harsh list to fight against! The amount of jink/covers saves available allow this army to soak up a lot of enemy fire, while remaining constantly out of assault range. The Warp Spiders are particularly frustrating, and if my Whirlwind had lasted a bit longer, maybe I could've made a difference. Maybe. The Rune Priest was used a bit recklessly, but that's just the way I use the wolves. I was not able to use the power I wanted too upon arrival due to the conditions of the rules for it, and Jaws of the World Wolf is a bit of a waste against Eldar. Living Lighting would've been a better choice perhaps. Actually, the ability to charge was the most potent thing I could do, but this Eldar list was designed to avoid that at all cost. And when I did get my Grey Hunters in, the squad's power weapon had already been lost. I do believe in hindsight that I was screwing myself out of an attack by forgetting that GHs have Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat weapons which they can alternate to get +1 Attacks in Close Combat! ....ooops! LOL

Despite the tabling, we still tallied VPs. Eldar 16, Space Wolves 2.

All in all, it was a fun game, and I liked the challenge even though it was very Kobioshi Maru and seems to be grossly one-sided against a typical list! I can see this list sweeping tourneys if executed properly. So after many editions the Eldar have their cheese crown back, but as any old timer from the beginning like me can tell you: that's the way it should be!

Tale of Painters

FTW

House of Paincakes

Bell of Lost Souls

Gamewire

About Me

I got into table-top wargaming hobby around the same time I got into RPGs. In fact, the game that has consumed my imagination the most, Warhammer 40,000, was trying to be both back then in '88. Even though the game quickly abandoned the RPG aspects, I've stuck with the hobby of miniature painting and buildling ever since, although my devotion wavers depending on what's going in the real world. I also do 2D art,but saddly my joe-job has evolved into a full-on career (in wireless cellphone repair) and my art pursuits have taken a backseat. I'm hoping this blog will ultimately show-case my 'return to form' so to speak. It's possible that if you've been involved in the 40k hobby as far back as the late '90s that you might've seen my work in Inquisitor Magazine.